Chinese New Year Is Upon Us A Week From Now

Why did I bring up this 2 week celebration? Well, I just remembered something, while the number "7" is good luck in western culture, it is also a lucky number in eastern culture. HOWEVER, the number 8 is even more popular with us Chinese people. In our language, the number is also a homonym for "wealth". Often certain numbers are superstitious in our culture. For example, my mom would never order anything in 4's at a restaurant. "Four" is bad luck because it'ss a homonym for "death". So for whatever reason, she orders in 7's or 8's! That's a lot of food between 4 people in this house hold. Also, Reno and Las Vegas was hoppin' with Chinese folks on August 8th, 2008. That's "8-8-08" for those of you keeping track. Call me a skeptic, I really think those two hot spots for gambling were business as usual (more losing than winning). Haha.

So, it brings me to this point. I think 8 full bottles would be a fair number to own. It'll probably be my max. I don't know when I'll get there in the event I do sell anything, but I wouldn't object to owning 8 bottles. With Valentine's Day falling on the same weekend, I'm a single guy. I'm not going to twiddle my thumbs and wait around for some gal to pick that 8th bottle or any bottle. I'll wear whatever the hell I damn well please and she's going to like it! Haha. Typical Basenotes response. Really though, I don't buy anything too weird, but I do buy bottles that are unique to the masses and likeable. Oh yea, NBA All-Star Weekend is on the same weekend as both these holidays. I hope Monta Ellis from my Golden State Warriors makes the cut to make the team. One of the all-star reserves (Brandon Roy of the Portland Trailblazers) got injured recently and is unable to play. Crossing my fingers.

I did give Pure Malt 2 more full wearings. I wore it today to a Super Bowl party (congrats to Drew Brees and the Saints!). I'm really convinced that Pure Malt isn't as heavy and strong as A*Men, by a long shot. Usually with gourmands and heavier fougéres, I proceed with a lot of caution. These types of fragrances (and eau de parfums) are heavy hitters and my procedure with wearing them at first is to spray on the sternum at the highest. Nothing touches my neck until it passes a sniffer test. If it's a little too light, I can move the sprays higher up. I take everything one spray at a time. I've been spraying the chest twice and once on the neck with Pure Malt. It's got solid strength for the first couple hours, then it seems to have regressed closer to the skin. Olfactory fatigue seems to be a factor with this one. However, Pure Malt has graduated one more spray to the neck with one on the chest. I try to stick with the same number of sprays first and change the positioning of where I spray. So I feel it should be 2 to the neck instead of 1 with the usual initial shot on the chest. The stupid rubber spray button's iffy, sometimes streaming and dribbling if I don't press it hard enough.

One thing's for sure, despite having just one full wearing and just sniffing my arm on another occasion with one spray, then buying a full bottle like that. I definitely made the right choice. In moderation, I really enjoy Pure Malt. Remember folks, you don't have to bathe in a fragrance to enjoy it. Sometimes just a slight hint of it in the air is just enough. After my 2 1/2 years of wearing fragrances and learning various application methods and limitations, I've grown to appreciate lighter applications rather than shameless attempts at achieving room clearing sillage. You'll never know what wonderful fragrances you'd be traumatized from ever wearing again just because of poor application (and sometimes other circumstances where your sense of smell is associated with something). I'd rather have a scent I like be out of smell, out of mind rather than linger around when something bad happens and that smell will forever be associated with it.

With that said, I really hope I like Varvatos Vintage better than the original and I'm never drinking that much again while wearing something that heavy. Just because "8" is a lucky number doesn't mean that's the number of sprays I need to use. I'm kidding of course, I never sprayed anything 8 times. That's absurd. On a side note, my most recent sample acquisitions from Sephora in San Francisco Union Square included John Varvatos Vintage, Boss Bottled (or #6), Guerlain Vetiver, and Cartier Declaration. I'm in no hurry to reach #8, but I sure love trying everything out over and over. I'll have to give Encre Noire a full wearing soon, but thus far based on a single spray on my arm, that stuff is GORGEOUS dark vetiver with a calming feel to it. It's as if I just experienced a calm, dark night in a single fragrance. Testing 1, 2, 3 will be posted pretty soon after I give a number of fragrances more wearings.